Investigate, Review, Reflect, Act

Each chapter in this course (including this introduction) ends with a set of interactive, experiential prompts to help you better understand and enact performance management for your team or teams. These prompts are a crucial complement to the course's lessons because they help you discover issues and address realities related to your unique context. Here's the first set to get you started for the course.

Choose a notebook#

Before you go further in this course, if you haven’t already, choose a notebook in which to keep notes. Unlike other Educative courses in which we can “test your understanding” by presenting you with code, in management, much of the understanding is cerebral and difficult to test. You’re going to want to test yourself by taking notes, retaking notes, and spending a few moments during the day reviewing your notes and your thoughts.

Reflect on successful practices#

To prepare for this course, actively reflect on your experience, and take notes on what comes to mind. Begin with the following questions:

• In your own history, where did you perform the best? Keep in mind, this isn’t the same question as “where were you the happiest” (although happiness and performance commonly do overlap).

• What role have you held where you were able to accomplish more than what you thought you were capable of doing?

• What were some of the common “ceremonies” there?

• How did your boss know what you were doing?

• How did you know you were doing well?

Based on your experience, theorize now, at the beginning of this course, a list of successful practices for performance management.

Reflect on poor practices#

Again, reflect on your experience, taking notes as you answer the following questions:

• In your own history, where did you perform the worst?

• What role have you held where you weren’t able to get anything good done, from either your or your employer’s perspective?

• What did your manager do poorly?

• How did you know what you were supposed to accomplish?

• What do you think held back your best performance?

Now, make a list of poor practices for performance management. You’ll review both of these lists when you complete this course.

Reflect on your goals for the course#

Spend a little more time in reflection. What do you want out of this course? What specific items (ideally 3–5 questions or topics) are you looking for? Jot these down in your notebook so that you can revisit them at the end of the course.